"Photo booth: Experiments in camouflage"
Images of Zack (above), below from right to left: Sammy, Ursula, Micah, Kurina
(found shirt, printed backdrop, dressing room curtains, camera, tripod and stool)
approximately 12 x 8 feet (3.5 x 2.5 meters)
December 2013
(found shirt, printed backdrop, dressing room curtains, camera, tripod and stool)
approximately 12 x 8 feet (3.5 x 2.5 meters)
December 2013
By mimicking the pattern on a shirt from my closet, I have created a simple environment that allows anyone walking by to step into my changing room and transform in front of the camera's lens. Participants are continually shocked and delighted when the printed shirt, whose pattern is at once familiar and, yet, foreign, blends so fluidly into its camouflaged backdrop.
"Mama Knit," performance reenactment
(pillows, stool, found clothing, felted and dyed wool, chicken wire, buttons, ketchup, Woolite, knitting needles)
approximately 3:30 minutes, 8 x 8 feet (2.5 x 2.5 meters)
December 2013
(pillows, stool, found clothing, felted and dyed wool, chicken wire, buttons, ketchup, Woolite, knitting needles)
approximately 3:30 minutes, 8 x 8 feet (2.5 x 2.5 meters)
December 2013
In "Mama Knit," I enact a ritual to the goddess of knitting. After removing my shoes, I step into the central knitted shaft and call upon Mother Knit: "Comfort me. Teach me. Stretch me." Blindly reaching through armholes, I drop out ceremonial offerings ‒ buttons, a thong, a drizzle of Woolite ‒ highlighting the intimate places where knitting mediates personal relationships.
"Ritual Cloth," with detail
(print paste and wax on canvas)
79 x 57 inches (2 x 1.46 meters)
May 2013
79 x 57 inches (2 x 1.46 meters)
May 2013
This wall hanging flattens the tools of eating like a manual photocopy machine. Overtop the waxy central orbs of serving dishes, forks and spoons repeat ad nauseam like the daily labor of cooking and eating.
"LSDinner," with detail
(resist dyed linen)
44.5 x 44.5 inches (1.13 x 1.13 meters)
September 2013
(resist dyed linen)
44.5 x 44.5 inches (1.13 x 1.13 meters)
September 2013
In "LSDinner," I employ the tools of eating directly in the dye process by clamping silverware and plates to the cloth in order to resist color saturation. The resulting "memory" of these objects appears hazily on the cloth, like an x-ray or hallucination at the dinner table.
"Collected Gestures," performance and video installation
(video stills)
approximately 4:00 minutes
December 2013
(video stills)
approximately 4:00 minutes
December 2013
Everyday for three months I have recorded (through immediate mimicry, written descriptions, and video reenactment) one gesture that I observe during the day. Each day, I add this "found" gesture to an ever expanding performance that strings these movements together in chronological order. I have presented the dance at LaBbodies and hope to workshop it with members of the Effervescent Collective.
"Natural dye journal"
(wool socks, natural dye materials from left to right: turmeric, chestnut bark, raps flower, Nespresso, red cabbage, red berries, airplane wine, undyed)
45 x 20 inches (115 x 50 centimeters)
November 2013
(wool socks, natural dye materials from left to right: turmeric, chestnut bark, raps flower, Nespresso, red cabbage, red berries, airplane wine, undyed)
45 x 20 inches (115 x 50 centimeters)
November 2013
On an eight day trip to Berlin, Germany, I collected dye materials to represent each day of travel. After returning to Baltimore, I stitched images related to each day into socks that I had purchased on the trip and colored the socks with the pigments collected. One sock has this stitching removed (far left) and one sock remains undyed (far right).
"Guns and wombs"
(rags, yarn, felt, rope, plastic trash bags, wire, latex, leather)
approximately 15 x 20 inches (40 x 50 centimeters)
October 2013
(rags, yarn, felt, rope, plastic trash bags, wire, latex, leather)
approximately 15 x 20 inches (40 x 50 centimeters)
October 2013
In this ongoing series, I request a "soft gun" from artist-friends, asking them to use materials that are supple and nonthreatening to make something that is normally steely and violent. For each gun that I receive, I make a responding womb-basket. Possibly a container for the gun or its foil, the womb is always paired with the gun facing away from its opening.
"Glowing Aspirations," video
(photo stills)
2:33 minutes
April 2013
(photo stills)
2:33 minutes
April 2013
The speed of this video increases gradually as you watch (and hear) me rhythmically working over my body, in hopes of producing sweat. These phrases of exercise are intercut with slow and intimate shots, where I look for sweat on my brow and in my underarms, with frustrating results. The video was part of MICA's 2013 Juried Undergraduate Exhibition.
"Freudian scarf"
(woven and knit from wool and cotton)
7 x 62 inches (18 x 158 centimeters)
February 2013
This scarf is a portrait of my mother's breasts and reflection on how our relationship is tied to our bodies. The right breast can be read as a young, prepubescent breast and the other (left) an aging, maternal one.
